Thorny issue

I prepared everything, well almost everything, for a small shoot on the farm for Gentleman Farmer. However, I forgot the camera crank key at home so I was unable to shoot anything. William made a video about a tree while I pulled thistles from around the cottage. I've had them under control but on the other side of the fence they were giant. 

strange adventures

Had a bunch of errands to do yesterday including one last stop at my office for department head business. Construction around campus made parking a hassle. Got a ticket this week but talked my way out of it. Went to the party store to help William find props and found masks for the locally made Cuphead videogame. Too expensive, but cool.

John and Jeff Nachtigall came over for a drink. I lost these images for a few months, having misplaced William's blue camera, so am add this below, six months later....

The Goose

William and I caught a really fun Winnipeg film called "The Goose" at the RPL last night. The director played around a lot with mixing animation and low tech analog effects such as foreground miniatures along with hand made emulsions and radical image disruption to make a charming narrative film that had us rolling. Director Mike Maryniuk was there.

Moving out of my office

I've been moving stuff slowly from the department head office to my old office but today I moved a few of the larger things and cleared the surfaces of everything I am taking. I even managed to clear the computer and copy relevant files to the next head. I have one or two tasks left and if they don't get done, they will pass to Mark. Here are the two rooms, the empty head office and my office:

High School over for William

Finishing high school doesn't happen all at once. William had his grad prom a couple weeks ago. He had his last day of classes after that. He then had his final final exams and the grades that came out after that, but today was really it. The students crossed the stage, were given diplomas, was given extra recognition for being top of his class in both art and psychology, and now he has no reason to ever enter the high school building again. Life's next stage begins now. 

The grandmothers came to the ceremonies today. We were able to take some pictures then go for lunch with all the available family. By chance, Rae was at Crave and congratulated William - very nice moment. 

Extension on gazebo patio

I put in the other bricks for the side of the gazebo. Still need some edging and probably more sand, followed by the landscaping, but it's getting there. 

William preparing for his film

William has a small window of time in a couple of weeks to connect with a number of friends and make a film. He spent all day revising/reducing the script and this evening started on props. 

AGR Mystery fundraiser

Had fun at the Art Gallery of Regina fundraiser mystery party tonight. Margaret was busy as an organizer. The courtyard, which was a nice place to sit back and talk in the middle of it all, is not yet finished (midst of renovations) so that didn't happen, but it was just as well as the weather was very rainy. George and the girls were having a pig roast on the farm by Gertrud made it in to join us. William and I dressed up and solved the mystery, but didn't win anything.

Final classes

 William wrote his final high school final today. Calculus. He probably did fine. Greeted him with traditional Lego when he got home, although this is a much smaller deal than it used to be.

This afternoon I screened Billy Liar for the final class with my Lifelong Learning class. Lots of good discussion, especially from those with experience in England from the 1950s and 60s. Teaching four classes on a subject I wasn't too familiar with proved a bit more taxing than I'd anticipated but it was still quite fun. 

Sitting Bull robe at MAG

We sat down with Janine and dined on bison at the restaurant at the MacKenzie Art Gallery as a prelude to attending an interesting talk by Lakota artist and Knowledge Keeper Wayne Goodwill about Sitting Bull's robe that is on display upstairs after being elsewhere for the past 74 years years. 

What I saw on the way to the Balkwill.

Went to an open session to paint a standard 8 camera I got from Sarah last week. The construction site was going strong. They were hard at it until at least 3 am last night while William was trying to sleep for his two final exams today. He survived them, but the guy on the corner was sent to a hotel with his little daughter. He was told that the work on this specific spot would be done today. Rain finally came.

William super-8 race to the finish

Deadline for the One Take Super 8 and William has one open day between his classes (where he handed in the last three papers of the 5 papers due in the final week) and his exams (two of which are the next day), so armed with an overly complex script he charged out into the countryside to create an Oz film with his cousins. I wanted to be there but I had a meeting with a potential student. Now I usually feel really good about meeting new students as I get to know what their interests are and I can discuss how we might help them meet their goals or dreams. However, in this case it was just a student asking me to extend him some privileges that I already knew I would not be able to do. He rejected my offer to show him our facilities and told me he's applying other places. I hope he gets in to one of them as I have a rare feeling of complete apathy for him. On top of this waste of time, I didn't get to help William make his film. Perhaps they had more fun making it without me anyway. Few things are more fun than making a film with people you like. 

One Take Super 8 shoot

Geremy helped me shoot my One Take film today. Anything more would be a spoiler. 

first and last day of school

William headed off today for his last day of grade 12 classes. Pictured above, going the wrong direction and foregoing getting into his car, we can compare him with the first day of Kindergarten some 13 years 10 months earlier. 

Father's Day

Happy father's day.

Laying stones

I worked on the stones for under the gazebo all day, figuring that it would storm any time. It didn't storm, but the clouds made the day cool which made it easier to do this much work.
Family meal at Caraway Grill. I went home afterwards and fell asleep for two hours. 

tamping

Tamped the sand in the morning. Were able to move the smallest of the tampers in Margaret's hanchback car. Heavy but not back breaking. Rain threatened but only a few drops fell.
Taught "The Hound of the Baskervilles" with Peter Cushing (Hammer Film version from 1959) at Lifelong Learning this afternoon where my class is up to 11.

We then had supper at Lori's (Sharon in town). Dad is in good spirits. Mom has been watering his wine down with ginger-ale. I can't believe he doesn't notice (or at least doesn't complain).

more cameras

Painting class is over but we booked some extra time this week and next to just have the studio. Fewer of us this week. Painted this Sony TRV 510 digital 8 camera. Department doesn't use these anymore (tape based) but I keep one on hand as it can do a real time video positive/negative effect and spit the reversed signal out again. I used this a couple years ago for a projection in the yard where I played negative 16mm film and then a live video projection of the positive version of it.

Sarah gave me (presumably the department for the department head office shelf) her collection of old cameras. I'll be sure to paint a few of them this summer. 

Ian and super-8

I've got production quality envy today as I chanced by Ian's set in the studio. I won't print any spoilers of his set, but it is so good he's leaving nothing up to chance and has a simultaneous shoot with super-8 and Black Magic. 

Gertrud's new stereo

Helped Gertrud install new stereo components. It's a lot of electronics. I guess it is a primary pleasure. 

Mud changing?

The mud that we put into a vial three weeks ago might actually be changing colours. I burped them today and a bubble emerged from each when I did so. 

Vic Cicansky at Slate

The celebration of Vic Cicansky continued into Slate Gallery where a large range of his work was up for sale, or just to view. Even though it was Saturday night, William put about 8 hours into working on his homework; an essay on serial killer H. H. Holmes.

Vic Cicansky at MacKenzie

Vic Cicansky's retrospective opened at the MacKenzie with a huge crowd and lots of speeches. The art was drawn together from dozens of collections and was really amazing to see all togther. 

Pride parade by our house

The entire Connaught School participated in a pride parade today, walking past our house chanting and waving flags and things. Pretty cool. I did a bit of first aid to a scraped knee. Saw Ellen with the little kids. 

William grad celebration

William had the dress up fancy event part of his graduation this week. He basically came as he was (picked out a special tie). We got a chance to see many of his friends. I suppose it is a bit sad that he'll not see most of them much anymore, but there will be new people.
Great to see Stephen Onda and Todd Irving with Olivia.

Painting the Auricon

I lugged the Auricon from the office to the last day of painting this week. It is a brute of a thing, probably 50 pounds or so. I think it was too big to paint small. Perhaps I should do a series of paintings of it, cropping and studying it. However, I needed to get it back to the office before I injured myself with it. 

Fire

Had our first fire of the year. Allan was over. Nick was, as usual, attracted to it. He didn't even seem bothered by the ashes that covered him.

Heart and Paper

Doctor checked and discovered William has a heart. What we really wondered was about the use of a wallpaper tray for the table paper (bottom left). Margaret thought it unprofessional, I considered it a wise and frugal use of taxpayer money.